1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to headers and more specifically it relates to a row crop header for cutting row crops, such as beans, beneath the ground surface thereby increasing the percentage of brittle and bent over row crop harvested. Edible bean plants have a vine structure with the fragile pods laying upon the ground surface between and in the rows. Conventional harvesting of edible beans requires the use of an implement having a plurality of cutting blades that sever the edible bean plant below the ground surface to insure the fragile pods remain attached to the vine. Other cutting means, such as a Flex-Head, are not as suitable because they will sever a percentage of the pods from the vine thereby reducing the overall yield of the edible bean crop. However, the conventional method of harvesting beans requires an additional three steps that lead to further loss of the fragile pods: (1) rod weeding the severed bean plants, (2) wind rowing the beans with a bean rake, and (3) actually combining the row of edible beans. Hence, there is a need for a product that will combine the above four steps into one single step to reduce the amount of mechanical handling of the fragile bean pods.
2. Description of the Prior Art
There are numerous headers and cutting devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,086,749 to Greiner et al; U.S. Pat. No. 3,455,094 to Gorham; U.S. Pat. No. 3,459,086 to Reeder, Jr.; U.S. Pat. No. 577,985 to Koegel; U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,832 to Pietschmann; Netherland Patent 8000282 to Pottinger; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,648,942 to Grant et al are all illustrative of such prior art.
Greiner et al (U.S. Pat. No.4,086,749) discloses a row crop header comprising a plurality of row crop units pivotally mounted with respect to one another. Greiner et al further discloses a pair of rotary discs disposed within the inlet opening in an overlapping relationship to sever the crop a finite distance above the ground surface.
Gorham (U.S. Pat. No.3,455,094) discloses a harvester with overlapping disc cutters which are self sharpening and driven at different peripheral speeds. The overlapping disc cutters sever the crop a finite distance above the ground surface.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for cutting row crops beneath the ground surface thereby increasing the percentage of brittle and bent over row crop harvested. None of the prior art teaches a header with a pair of cutting discs which penetrate the ground a finite distance. Further, none of the prior art teaches a pair of cutting discs with a plurality of arcuate notches for preventing debris such as rocks from lodging between the pair of cutting discs while operating within the ground.
With new chemicals available which cause all of the edible bean plants in a field to ripen simultaneously, straight combining of the edible bean pods is made possible. However, the conventional four step process of combining edible beans does not take advantage of the new chemicals presently available. The present invention allows straight combining of various row crops, especially edible beans, with a dramatic reduction in the amount of crop damaged or left in the field unharvested.
In these respects, the row crop header according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of cutting row crops beneath the ground surface thereby increasing the percentage of brittle and bent over row crop harvested.